Quotes of the day

posted at 10:41 pm on February 13, 2013 by Allahpundit

Former Vice President Dick Cheney pronounced himself a “big fan” of Sen. Marco Rubio in a radio interview Wednesday, calling the Florida senator a “first-rate asset.”

“Marco’s great,” Cheney said on Sean Hannity’s radio show. “I’m a big fan of his.”…

“He’s a first-rate asset,” the former vice president said. “We’ll be hearing a lot from him down the road. And the one bright note, I think, from the last election is we do have a good crop of folks coming along who have enormous talent and I think are dedicated to the principles most Americans believe in.”

Rubio’s speech was “entirely consistent with the policy ideas that Mitt Romney campaigned on last year and that the American people did not support,” Carney told reporters on Air Force One en route to an Obama stop in Asheville, N.C. to tout his State of the Union proposals.

***

“I still love Marco for the party but last night was not good for him … especially with him also currently being on the cover of Time as the Republican savior,” said one operative who asked not to be identified. “Jindal had to take the risk on his response speech when he did because nobody knew him … everyone knows Marco so what’s to gain with so much at risk?”…

Castellanos said the frame for viewing his performance is not against Jindal or the president, but against “the next round of Democrats” running in 2014 and 2016.

Republicans are of two minds about “saviors.” Many are wary of embracing one, but others derive their entire political identity from Ronald Reagan. A savior figure may be the only short-term way to regain the presidency, though. The Republican demographic crunch will force a successful presidential candidate to create a sustainable coalition of disparate groups, each attracted to the candidate by something different, and incentivized to work for the candidate by the dream he inspires…
The Republican savior has to thread the needle: There is room for Republicans to grow their vote in the Rust Belt. But they’ve been unable to do so in their current configuration. The party’s message and messengers aren’t working well enough. A galvanizing candidate, someone who can shake up the chess board, someone who can attach new policies to existing demographic groups and grow them, is what Republicans need. That’s why superficial qualities like Marco Rubio’s youth and, yes, his ethnicity, matter more.

***

But good politicians can tend more toward the ideological extreme and do just fine. Case in point is Obama, who had ranked as the most liberal senator, yet had built a public image as someone who want to facilitate compromise.

Even when Obama ran for president, it was hard for Republicans to label him an extremist because it was so at odds with his public image.

Rubio is walking very much the same line, voting very conservative but not coming across as an ideologue and taking care to find middle ground on a signature issue: immigration. And even while he’s done that, he’s somehow convinced some of the most conservative voices in the party to soften their hard-line stances on that issue — a tribute to his political skills.

***

JOE SCARBOROUGH: I’m going to get in trouble for saying this. I should just keep my mouth shut but I’m going to say it. Because you’ve just got to say the truth. You really do. Marco Rubio is, in effect, the Republican party’s answer to Barack Obama. A guy that’s great looking, a guy that’s articulate, a guy that could put together a lot of different groups that could help you win the presidency. And a guy who’s not ready to be President of the United States…

As recently as a few months ago, Paul Ryan — despite his nominal subordinate position to Mitt Romney on the Republican ticket — was the unassailable leader of the Republican Party. But Marco Rubio appears to have seized the mantle from Ryan. Or, at least, if Ryan is the party’s mind, Rubio is its face, the Bush to Ryan’s Cheney…

Republicans not only distrust immigration reform as public policy, they distrust Obama personally and can’t stand the idea of cooperating with him. Rubio has managed to get conservatives to think of cooperating with Obama on immigration reform as a kind of triumph over Obama. Never mind that Obama has favored comprehensive reform all along, and Rubio opposed it until the last few weeks. The new partisan narrative presents Obama as a foe of immigration reform and Rubio as its long-standing champion. Thus, the passage of an immigration-reform bill would represent Rubio’s partisan triumph over Obama…

It is as if Rubio were a local ward heeler, and Republicans were lining up to hand him over their proxy vote. They have the vague sense of certain policy principles at stake, but they define those principles almost entirely by what Rubio is willing to accept. They believe, almost by definition, that a bill Rubio supports is supportable, and the failure of a bill must be Obama’s fault. So then finally, Rubio will be standing with his foot atop Obama’s throat, having bested him by forcing him to sign a bill fulfilling one of his longtime legislative priorities. And then … 2016!

***

Republicans think putting up a spokesman like Rubio, who is Hispanic and in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, will help them make inroads with minorities. But all of the large minority groups — blacks, Hispanics and Asians — look much more favorably on government than whites do, seeing it as an entity that can and should help people get ahead rather than just getting out of the way…

The Republican Party’s problem isn’t the messenger; it’s the broad economic message. To fix the message, Republicans need to be for smart government. They need to signal that they have a serious policy agenda that considers programs and regulations on a case-by-case basis, rather than just demagoguing the government. They need a real agenda on health care and jobs rather than just opportunistic opposition to anything the president does.

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Republicans think putting up a spokesman like Rubio, who is Hispanic and in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, will help them make inroads with minorities.

How about instead you put up Cruz, who is Hispanic and against CIR, and make inroads with your ex-base.

I’m through with the parade of “also rans” the GOP elite keep saddling us – no “anchoring us” – with. Give me another Reagan who goes against the GOP elite, and we can win again. With the Cheney-Rubio crowd, we’re just in for more losses.

Marco Rubio was Speaker of the House of, like, the fourth largest state in America, okay? So if we want to compare state legislative careers, Marco had more experience. He’s still not ready to be President of the United States.

Moaning Schmoe was Crist’s biggest mouthpiece because Rubio was Republican and younger than him and damn it, that’s Schmoe’s state and Senate seat …. if he wanted it. Which he didn’t. But he could have.

And one by one we send potential good candidates to their slaughter by the MSM and the Progressives well-schooled in Alinsky and Cloward and Piven.

Started with that lady from Wasilla…and in this past election cycle just about any candidate who was not Romney faced the same.

Sort of the Japanese philosophy of “wa” gone horribly wrong here in America.

Stand out too much too soon…they will drive you down. Be too forthcoming too soon and they will use your words and actions like a Philadelphia lawyer hell-bent on a conviction.

This week it is Marco’s task to run the gauntlet.

Next week, who shall be offered as a sheep to the slaughter?

This is no way for a nation to pick and choose its potential elected officials. This is no way for a once-proud and competent political party to winnow its ranks…letting the opposition decide for us who shall run and who shall remain forever silent.

Maybe if we started looking at Constitutional principles and how various potential candidates have fared in that regard first….overall…before we foist them op as a petard on the gates of Washington, DC.

Principles before personalities has merit.

We’ve got to do a lot better than merely trying to sell a candidate as being not as bad as that other guy.

Face it, the progs are well-schooled in how to deal with those they fear most. Alinsky’s Rule 5 is the most common approach to any candidate we offer.

They are not going to change.

We have to learn how to conserve our powder (and our potential candidates) and be more than willing when necessary to fight fire with fire. Every foible, every misstep, every word uttered is ammunition for the Left to use as they please. Why are we letting them choose our candidates and why do we continue to make it easy for them to do so?

Trying to be nice all the time is not working. Being bipartisan when the other side is anything but, is not working either.

Need we see any more proof that Palin is the Republican that Democrats would most like to run against? GumbyandPokey is the biggest Obama-supporting MOBY troll on this site. How funny that the fanatical Palinistas now have common cause with the Obama supporters.

FACT: Palin as the nominee would ensure a Democrat victory landslide greater than Reagan’s 1984 victory.

Need we see any more proof that Palin is the Republican that Democrats would most like to run against? GumbyandPokey is the biggest Obama-supporting MOBY troll on this site. How funny that the fanatical Palinistas now have common cause with the Obama supporters.

FACT: Palin as the nominee would ensure a Democrat victory landslide greater than Reagan’s 1984 victory.

Need we see any more proof that Palin is the Republican that Democrats would most like to run against? GumbyandPokey is the biggest Obama-supporting MOBY troll on this site. How funny that the fanatical Palinistas now have common cause with the Obama supporters.

FACT: Palin as the nominee would ensure a Democrat victory landslide greater than Reagan’s 1984 victory.

bluegill on February 13, 2013 at 11:07 PM

.
The Democrat attack dogs (journalists) really haven’t stopped going after her.
During the primaries, they pushed for Mitt Romney, and Democrat “cross-over” voters overwhelmingly voted Romney where they could.

WHO THE (multiple expletives) DO YOU THINK THE DEMOCRATS WERE MORE AFRAID OF ? !

Sorry, we don’t take fourth-rate HotAir commenters who couldn’t post a worthwhile or original comment if their life depended on it into our esteemed ranks, anyway.

Bmore is nothing but the immature woman who tries to insult bluegill with the same tired insults that weren’t even funny or effective the first 100 times Bmore copied and pasted them. That’s pretty much Bmore’s HotAir existence in a nutshell. I kind of rank Bmore way down there with the brain trust Pragmatic. Both are dumb as dirt, but they keep plugging away with their stupid comments day after day.

FACT: Palin as the nominee would ensure a Democrat victory landslide greater than Reagan’s 1984 victory.

bluegill on February 13, 2013 at 11:07 PM

lol — Let’s run Palin.

I think she’d have a terrible time, and I was always glad she made the decision to step aside. For her. But so many things would explode that would be fun to see explode — I’m beginning to think she should run.

Need we see any more proof that Palin is the Republican that Democrats would most like to run against? GumbyandPokey is the biggest Obama-supporting MOBY troll on this site. How funny that the fanatical Palinistas now have common cause with the Obama supporters.

FACT: Palin as the nominee would ensure a Democrat victory landslide greater than Reagan’s 1984 victory.

bluegill on February 13, 2013 at 11:07 PM

Er, nowhere in my post did I claim to be a supporter of Palin nor what would happen should she run. In fact, I’ve BEEN ON RECORD saying that I’m NOT a huge Palin fan and I DON’T think she should run.

The POINT of my post was that RuPoll made an appearance after all of these months and that he claims to be a huge fan.

I didn’t know about it either, until Firefox started to take forever to load sites and wouldn’t load my email. Timewarner techs told me about clearing the history. So now I do it every time Firefox starts to bog down.